Bimber Distillery Tasting Notes

Bimber Oak Aged Vodka 42%

Wheat based spirit. Quadruple distilled.

Tasted: Apr 2016

The nose is quite oily with dried fruit and taught vanilla. Gently spiced with toffee and a light herbal graininess.

The palate is soft and oily. Quite spicy with a touch of botanicals and toffee’d oak. Very flavourful and well balanced with an almost grain whisky character. Long, spicy and vanilla’d with camphor and cardamom notes and a slightlky smoky after-taste. It comes across as a sort of grain whisky/ oak aged gin hybrid!

Bimber Blackberry Vodka 40%

Tasted: Apr 2016

A nose of herbal spirit, straw and earthy, relatively subtle, natural blackberry. Hints of clove and spice (added?).

Slightly syrup coated blackcurrant on the palate with a touch of spice. More fruit focused with straw and earth. Quite a mentholated, herbal finish and a dry, spicy after-taste.

Bimber Summer Fruit Vodka 40%

Strawberry, Blackberry, Blueberry, Redcurrant, Raspberry

Tasted: Apr 2016

All the summer fruit aromas are there along with s alight syrup coating. Hints of vanilla, straw and earth follow.

The palate is pure and fruity. Quite sweet with a light syrup coating. There’s not much spirit character as the fruit dominates although a touch of earth and straw comes through. Spicy finish.

Bimber Blackcurrant Vodka 40%

Tasted: Apr 2016

Pure, intense aromas of blackcurrant. Lightly smoked with a touch of syrup, straw and earth.

The palate is sweet-ish with blackcurrant, smoke, earth and some drying tannins. Intensely dry and slightly bitter finish, but the syrup attempts to balance. Again very natural.

 

Masons of Yorkshire Tasting Notes

Masons Vodka 42%

Tasted: Apr 2016

Fresh and slightly wheaty nose with a hint of citrus.

The palate is soft, creamy an fuller than the nose. Slightly wheaty with again a touch of citrus on the finish and lingering spirit character.

The Lakes Distillery Tasting Notes

The Lakes Distillery Vodka 40%

100% English Wheat

Tasted: Feb 2015

Soft and wheaty aromas with a light vanilla note and hints of citrus and earth.

The palate opens with some lightly oiled wheat along with a light biscuity note. Hints of creamy vanilla come through on the middle. Lightly bitter on the finish but it gives it a pleasant bite

Adnams Brewery Tasting Notes

Adnams Copperhouse Barley Vodka 40%

Tasted: Oct 2014

Nose: Soft and creamy with plenty of vanilla and barley notes. Lightly oiled with a touch of soft spice.

Palate: Soft, creamy and toffee’d with crème caramel, light cereal and spice. Very full and rounded with a touch of lightly oiled spirit character.

Finish: Long and spicy with hints of chilli pepper.

Conclusion: Pleasant and full with a good character.

Adnams Copperhouse Barley Vodka 40%

Re-Tasted: Dec 2014

Nose: Full and expressive. The aromas appear to be quite wheaty and rounded. Underneath is a light milky vanilla note and with time some citrus notes come through.

Palate: Soft, fleshy and earthy, with what feels like some rye spice. Quite deep with a late, light vanilla note.

Finish: Good length with a light, peppery spice finish and lingering vanilla notes.

Conclusion: An impressive and classy vodka. A little too commercial for my liking but it’s very drinkable.

Adnams Longshore Vodka 48%

Tasted: Oct 2014

Nose: A thick nose of clotted cream and vanilla ice cream. Lightly spiced with cinnamon and ginger. With time some oily spirit character emerges. Very impressive.

Palate: Full and overly creamy. That clotted cream note is the dominating theme.

Finish: Medium length with a hot and alcoholic finish.

Conclusion: Probably the most interesting nose of all the samples, but the palate was way too creamy and unbalanced.

Adnams Longshore Vodka 48%

Re-Tasted: Dec 2014

Nose: Slightly soapy with a distinct lemon note. Quite oily with a developing fresh, grassy note.

Palate: Sift and oily. Less expressive than the nose with a touch of vanilla and lemon.

Finish: Good length with and intense, if a little alcoholic finish.

Conclusion: It probably should have been in the flavoured category as it had a distinct lemon character.

Scorpion Vodka Tasting Notes

Scorpion Vodka 37.5% 7cl

Tasted: Oct 2013

The nose is quite grainy with hints of aniseed, liquorice root and ginger. Slightly starchy with a touch of cereal and warm spice. 

The palate is soft and quite milky, again with hints of aniseed and liquorice root. Relatively spicy on the middle with a full on wheat flakes finish. Oh an the scorpion is quite crunchy!

Chase Distillery Tasting Notes

Tyrrells English Potato Vodka 40%

Tasted: Aug 2008

On the nose it is big, oily and powerful. Again quiet whisky-like with a lovely citrus note to balance its underlying starchy character. It is extremely clean with a hint of botanicals. On the palate it is soft and starchy, artesian, with a controlled rusticity. Very intense and flavourful with hints of citrus. Lovely length with a good, crisp finish.

Chase English Potato Vodka 40%

Re-Tasted: Aug 2015

Full and starchy aromas with hints of earth and creamy vanilla.

Full and soft on the palate, again quite creamy and starchy with a lovely smoothness. Long with a lingering creaminess.

Naked Chase 42%

Tasted: Oct 2009

A pure, clean nose, which appears initially to be slightly oily before the high toned, crisp, slightly floral notes emerge as do some earthy notes. It is fuller and rounder than the potato vodka and a lot more floral. The palate is soft and exceptionally creamy, almost lactose like. There is a bucket full of pure vanilla pod, crème caramel. Robust and succulent, the alcohol takes awhile to power through its powdery depth. Lovely length with a pleasant touch of sweetness.

Naked Chase 42%

Re-Tasted: Aug 2015

Fresher on the nose than the potato vodka with a touch of pulped apple, straw and a light biscuity note.

The palate displays the freshness of the nose. Again it has a fleshy apply feel with hints of straw and earth. Lightly citric with lingering soft apple notes.

Chase Marmalade Vodka 40%

Tasted: Apr 2010

Soft, aromatic and relatively subtle marmalade aromas. It has a distinct thick cut breakfast-orange/ lemon rind character with an almost crystalline edge. The starchy/ creamy chase spirit character is there and balances well. The palate opens with a huge impact of naturally sweet marmalade, with the flavours mirroring the aromas. Again the spirit character balances the sweetness. What makes this stand out amongst the legions of other flavoured vodkas is the purity and naturalness of the flavourings used.

Chase Marmalade Vodka 40%

Re-Tasted: June 2011

The nose has a lovely purity of marmalade orange with the crisp, graininess (less starchy than 2010 bottling) of the spirit balancing the sweetness very well. Initially it is quite sweet on the palate and full of English breakfast marmalade flavours. The spirit sits beneath and just comes through with a lovely bite towards the end. Superb balance and extremely smooth. Very long, leaving an oily, orange residue coating the mouth.

Chase Marmalade Vodka 40%

Re-Tasted: Aug 2015

Subtle notes of orange marmalade and pure orange rind mingle with the lightly starchy spirit character.

Quite sweet and a little sugary with more orange marmalade fruit on the palate. The starchy spirit does come through on the finish well though.

Chase Rhubarb Vodka 40%

Tasted: Aug 2015

Subtle and earthy aromas with some sweet-ish fruit. Not overly rhubarby in character but the fruit is definitely ripe.

Sweet on the palate with what appears to be cherry fruit rather than rhubarb. Sugary and creamy with a very sweet finish. Like the nose I don’t get a lot of rhubarb!

Chase English Oak Smoked Vodka 40%

Tasted: Nov 2013

The nose opens quite crisp and fresh before it begins to flesh out and becomes quite creamy with a lovely light sweetness. Lightly starchy with an almost Islay-like smokiness plus hints of green oak smoke and a light perfumed note.

The palate is full, wonderfully soft and very creamy with plenty of vanilla and starchy notes. The oak smoke is quite gentle and a little meaty, thus it doesn’t overpower the spirit. Lovely crisp finish with a lingering light spiciness and sappy, green oak smoke.

Chase English Oak Smoked Vodka 40%

Re-Tasted: Aug 2015

Lovely soft aromas with plenty of green oak smoke and bacon fat. Lovely balance with some spirit character coming through.

The palate is intense but subtle with the green oak smoke prominent. Again, slightly meaty with a touch of creamy spirit. Long, smoky finish.

Black Moth Tasting Notes

Black Moth Truffle Vodka 40%

Bottling Code: TD12/199

Tasted: Nov 2013

Black Moth is the result of the creative collaboration between vodka enthusiast Paul Amin and truffle connoisseur Paul Thomas. Like many white spirits it is distilled by the Thames Distillers at the Timbermill Distillery in London. Five times distilled and flavoured using the Périgord truffle, known as the ‘Black Diamond’. 

A very mushroomy and truffly nose (obviously!) with hints of damp, loamy earth, damp cereal and wet socks! Beneath is some creamy, cereally spirit with just a hint of vanilla. Very unique and rather enjoyable aromas. 

The palate is earthy and sweet-ish with damp loamy earth, mushroom as earthy truffle notes. Quite full flavoured with a pleasant, creamy mouth-feel and lightly spicy. Good length with the oily truffle notes lingering.